Click here to edit title.

Click here to edit title.

Click here to edit title.

Click here to edit title.

ALL ABOUT OUR

Twin Parish in Haiti

The Church of St. Michael and St. Peter committed to
become a twin parish in the spring of the year 2000. Parishioner Ligory
Fernandes contacted the Parish Twinning Program of the Americas to be matched
with parish in Haiti.

The Church of the Immaculate Conception was built on
land given by the community in the area called Chauffard, in the mountains
south west of Port-au-Prince. The Church, Rectory, and school were built there.
The parish is made up of Chauffard, and six other villages with chapels and smaller
schools tucked away in the mountains around Chauffard. The villages include
Laval, Procy, Malanga, Bois d’Homme, Berly, and Masson. There are no real roads
among the villages, just trails.

The parishioners of our twin parish live simply;
without running water, plumbing or electricity. They cook their meals outside
over wood or charcoal fires. They collect water from streams for their many
needs. Most families are farmers. The children are always in clean uniforms for
school and everyone dresses in their best to attend mass on Sunday.

Education is very important to the people of our
twin parish. The $1,000 a month we send during the school year for the salaries
for the 35 teachers and school lunch cooks helps retain good staff from year to
year. Families want their children to grow up healthy for useful challenging
careers just as we do.

The children of our twin parish are deserving of a
good education and healthy meals. The simple meal of rice and beans or pasta
and dried fish that we provide through the school lunch program is their best
meal of the day. Since 2014, the World Food Program stopped sending food
supplies to religious schools in southern Haiti. It has been a struggle to
raise $5,000 a month to pay for a healthy hot meal at lunchtime for every
student in the 7 schools of our twin parish during the school year.

Our medical mission volunteers celebrated the
dedication of the new Chauffard clinic with the community in November 2018. The
clinic, like the church, wasoriginally built in the 1950’s and was is poor
condition. It was rebuilt over a number of years and, since April 2018, is
staffed with a licensed nurse. Our medical mission volunteers join with Haitian
medical professionals to serve hundreds of patients a day in the clinic each
November. It’s a wonderful personal connection between our parishes. Our
volunteers always tell of the welcome they receive and of how kind and grateful
the people of our twin parish are with them.

We host fundraisers all year long to pay for the
school lunch program, teacher and cook salaries and other projects. We also have
annual collections: school supplies in September, basic medical supplies in
November, and toiletries and medical supplies in March. We welcome new members
and donations at any time. Contact Kate McMahon at 315-214-1569 for more
information.

Haiti Power Point The Haiti Medical Mission is happening right now. November 11, 2014. How we help? Do you know? See this presentation.

The rice ones are photos of the food purchased with money we sent for
the school lunch program.

"For the food [school lunch] for the children, I can tell you that we have enough for this academic year 2014-2015. The quantity of food purchased is sufficient through the end of the school year.

Then the photo marked "school" is of
the construction at the new school in Chauffard. When Caritas Suisse
finished building, they left the space from the top of the classroom
walls to the roof of the building empty. There is no drop ceiling on the
classrooms and noise carries between rooms. Father Raymond had said
last year this carrying the walls up to the roof would be needed. Below
are his comments in last week's email.

"The Caritas Suisse [who built the new school] left it to me to make the separation of the classes. The work is in process.